Development of an Enzyme Immunoassay for the Determination of the Insecticide Pymetrozine

Abstract Pymetrozine (CGA 215 944) is a selective insecticide against plant sucking pests. Polyclonal antibodies were raised in rabbits against two pymetrozine related compounds conjugated to BSA. The antisera produced against one of the two compounds led to development of a competitive Enzyme Immuno Assay (EIA) against pymetrozine with high precision and accuracy and a detection limit of 50 ng of pymetrozine per g of plant fresh weight. Only a weak cross-reactivity was obtained with pymetrozine metabolites. Plant extracts produced a background corresponding to 10–30 ng equivalents of pymetrozine per g fresh weight. The detection limit was set above this background noise at 50 ng/g fresh weight. In other systems or following other extraction protocols the detection may yet be below this limit.